The drop in both the travel and the medical and medical consumables industries had largely contributed to the 15 per cent drop in overall complaints Case received in 2021, compared with 2020.

In 2021, it saw 15,515 complaints, while in 2020, there were 18,335 complaints.

Of the complaints received last year, Case had assisted with 2069, or about 13 per cent, of them. Of these, about 68 per cent, or 1,412 cases, were resolved, with $2 million of cash and in-kind recovered for consumers.

Case said consumers in the 13,446 other cases did not require the association’s direct assistance and followed up with the businesses or resolved the issue on their own.

Mr Melvin Yong, president of Case, said the composition of consumer complaints has also returned to pre-pandemic levels.

This is “an early sign that consumer purchasing behaviour and habits in Singapore have stabilised to pre-pandemic levels”, he added.

Complaints against the beauty industry took the top spot last year, accounting for almost one in 10 complaints received. About one-quarter of complaints against spas and beauty salons were related to pressure sales tactics and misleading claims.

Complaints about pressure sales tactics include beauty salons not allowing consumers to leave the premises unless they purchased beauty packages and performing treatments on consumers without their consent and charging them afterwards.

Misleading claims include beauty salons deceiving consumers on the number of sessions in the packages and how certain treatments can cure or alleviate health ailments.

This was a 49 per cent decrease from the 4,366 complaints received in 2020, largely due to a drop in complaints related to face masks, hand sanitisers, airline tickets and tour packages.

The two most common types of e-commerce complaints last year pertained to defective or non-conforming goods and delivery issues such as delayed deliveries, incomplete deliveries and wrong deliveries.

Consumers also suffered more than $520,000 in prepayment losses in 2021, a sharp increase from the $190,000 reported in 2020.

The beauty and bridal industries saw the greatest amount of prepayment losses in 2021. Consumers who made prepayments for beauty and bridal packages were unable to get a refund of their monies due to business insolvency.

Prepayment protection is an area of concern to Case, noted Mr Yong.

He said: “To better protect consumers against hefty financial losses due to company closures, we have called on the Government to consider mandating prepayment protection in industries which collect large sums of prepayment.”

He added that as part of licensing conditions, the industry should also be required to better inform consumers of the steps they can take to protect themselves against business closure.

Text: Adeline Tan/The Straits Times

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